Big Loop

This morning I ran a modified version of the Levy Loop, It's 2.1 miles and truly a loop. I ran it 14 months ago at night, when someone stopped to fuss at my partner and me for wearing dark clothing. Today I ran it as an option out of the Park Hill Loop. I'm not sure why I stopped. Maybe because it was so windy, and I wanted to get back to cleaning my house. I felt fine. Very good. I ran the first mile in 11:53, then 1.1 miles in 12:20. I started each mile with a one-minute walk, and did a good job of running very slowly. My search for a comfortable way to progress has at least momentarily found its mark.

Intervals

I devised a new way of doing 200-meter intervals this morning, and applied it this afternoon. First, I jogged about half a mile to a part of the 47th Street Loop, familiar to veterans of the Levy Series, that runs along the street perpendicular to the T-Shirt Shop. Then I walked off 200 meters, which probably is accurate to within 10 percent, though I think a bit long. I estimate a 10-20 foot elevation change, and started with a downhill circa 200, then ran it the other way, trying to stick to an 8-minute-a-mile pace. I did eight, with one-minute intervals, in 56.5, 61.9, 56.8, 60.1, 54.3, 58.9, 54.5, and 58.0.

It was work, but not nearly exhausting. I might alter the route a bit next time, to avoid turns west (downhill) or south (uphill) past five miniature dogs screaming like imprisoned school children.

The office pool standings were posted today. I'm assuming my math was incorrect, but, of course, will recount if one of the Levy contenders is close to victory or the money come two weeks from today.

Pam is in an eight-way tie for seventh with 46 points. If she gets all of her Final Four in, and North Carolina wins, she will win. Jo will likely finish in the money if Wisconsin wins, and still has a chance for victory. Samantha is out, I think. So am I, unless I have a nearly perfect finish the next two weekends.

Four

I ran the Levy Loop twice tonight, or 4 miles in 47:44, with mile splits of 11:54, 11:56, 12:02, and 11:52, using the Huckabee technique of walking the first minute of each mile. I wanted to go a little slower, but I felt pretty good. I'm pretty sure I could've maintained tonight's pace for a half-marathon.

The weather was nearly perfect. About 50 degrees, with very little wind.

After the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, our records are: Pam and Sam, 34-14. Jo and Rockamundo, 32-16. But the second round games count two points each, double the first round, so here are the official Levy Bracket standings.

Player Points (champion)

Pam 44 (North Carolina)
Sam 44 (Georgetown, which got beat today. Tough luck, Samantha)
Jo 43 (Wisconsin)
Rockamundo 41 (UCLA)

I guess I will find out tomorrow how we stand in the office pool.

Oh, it dawned on me today that the Whidbey Island Marathon is three weeks away, not two. Perfect. That gives me an extra week to not do shit.

Yard work

I mowed my lawn today, and spent about an hour spreading 320 pounds of top soil. We had record rainfall from late Monday through noon Wednesday. In the middle of the storm, Tom had a bunch of crack/meth/booze people over, several of whom drove through the extreme southeast corner of my front lawn. One stuck his pickup nearly a foot deep. The topsoil replaced the damage, minus the grass.

Pam took the lead in the Levy NCAA Tournament pool tonight.

Levy Pool Standings (champion)
Pam: 30-10 (North Carolina)
Samantha: 29-11 (Georgetown)
Jo: 27-13 (Wisconsin)
Rockamundo: 27-11 (UCLA)

Warm day in Levy

It was nearly hot today, maybe 75 degrees as I struggled along the Levy Loop, run in 24:40, with mile splits of 12:16 and 12:24. I never felt good.

I had to stop work late in the afternoon to run. I watched the NCAA Tournament for five hours, wrote a story about CBS' television coverage, battled a 2-mile run, then drove to the office to help present a bunch of stories written by a dozen of us. It was a difficult, only slightly rewarding day.

I'm not sure how I stand in the office pool after two days, but the Levy pool has Pam and Sam tied for first at 24-8. I'm third at 23-9. Jo is last at 21-11. Sam picked a great upset with her choice of San Diego over Connecticut. She sat on the front porch, and missed the closing seconds of San Diego's victory. "Watch it yourself, moron," she said. "I know San Diego will win."

We all enjoyed the best commercial of the day, and perhaps the best of all time. In it, some guy bought a six-pack of Bud Light that allowed him to converse with animals. He came home after work, met his dog in the kitchen, and said, "So, how was your day?" The dog said, "Sausage. Sausage. Sausages. Sausage."

"Did you do anything?"

"Sausage. Sausage, sausage, sausages."

He turned to a squirrel on his windowsill and said, "How are you?"

"Mind your own business, clown," the squirrel said.

His dog interrupted: "Sausage."

Levy

I ran the Levy Loop in 21:24 tonight with mile splits of 10:40 and 10:44. It was easy.

I am not sure I can run the Whidbey Island Marathon. Well, no, fuck, I know I can't run it. I'm not sure I can finish it any faster than I did the Little Rock Marathon. I won't do that. I would finish nearly an hour behind the next-to-last person. I will try to try a long run Sunday, maybe go 15 or 20 miles, and, based on that, decide whether to talk the Whidbey Island people into letting my downgrade to the half-marathon. Surely they will if I threaten them with a seven-hour marathon. We'll see.

Park Hill Loop

Last night, at about 11 p.m., I ran the Park Hill Loop, plus the first mile again, or 6 miles in 1:05:05, with splits of 10:52, 11:23, 10:36, 11:14, 10:38, and 10:22. It rained on me for about 20 minutes. Thunder, lightning, and hard wind accompanied the rain, which started and stopped abruptly. I felt good.

Home

The Arkansas Tech Lady Wonder Boys lost to Valdosta State on Saturday night. I drove out of Cleveland at 10:15 p.m., and got here at about 2:30 a.m.

I didn't run Saturday, but walked 18 holes on the Delta State University Golf Course with Sam Strassner, Tech's radio play-by-play man. I scored a 95 on the flat, wide-open, scraggly course. It had nice greens.

Yesterday I walked and jogged for thirty minutes with the Hash. It was muddy, and my legs were ripped to shreds by the worst briars on earth.

Out and back

CLEVELAND, Miss. — The neighborhood behind the Days Inn appeared more receptive in daylight. Two old men asked me how I was doing. Both called me "sir," which was a kind of weird. My legs felt dead, but I ran slowly enough to compensate. I ran out for 12 minutes, with a pretty stiff south wind at my back, then back for 12:28, and covered 2.2 miles. The temperature was about 60, but I was soaked with sweat when I finished. Later I was told the humidity frequently gets over 100 percent here, like it was this morning. It is a climatological impossibility local meteorologists don't report because they're afraid, I was told.

I reread this and recognized that perhaps as I ran by those old men, my 11-minute-a-mile pace made them think I'm an old man, too. Fuck. I am.

Way down here

CLEVELAND, Miss. — As I drove south on U.S. 61, two miles east of and parallel to the Mississippi River, looked to my left at a shed in the middle of a hundred acres of plowed dirt, I recalled Vincent Van Gogh's quote, "It is beautiful here. But if you have a clear eye without any obstacles in it, there is beauty everywhere." I remembered once supporting his thought at the Honey Hut in Levy, turned to my right, west toward the sun low enough to engage haze as a filter, and beauty appeared. Six-foot tall blades of emerald, or perhaps grass or rice plants, shown for a mile or so to a row of trees. The sun had dropped to the tree tops, and a crop duster flew south just above it. The scene reminded me of my favorites — Tiger Stadium, New York's skyline, the view from Russellville Country Club's first tee, Arkansas 9 in the spring and fall, fireworks reflected from the Gateway Arch, Oaklawn Park's barns and kitchen, the last mile to my father's farm, and the Rockies in a hailstorm at night.

This part of the earth has its most productive soil and some of America's poorest people. There is a 12-foot fence between my Days Inn lodging and a neighborhood unimaginable in Little Rock. I tried to drive a running route from here and did not find a usable one. I drove twelve blocks and passed shotgun shacks interrupted five times by relative mansions, none of which would improve even the worst areas of Levy. Self consciousness burdened me. I must have looked like a cop, except to a cat who ran in front of my car and looked remarkably like Natalie. Maybe the owl dropped her in Cleveland.

I don't belong here. To run through this neighborhood at night would be to invade privacy. I know I'm sometimes hard to understand, but that's as clearly as I can explain my decision to drive to the Delta State campus and run 5.2 miles from there on an out-and-back course. It took me 53:18. I ran out for 25 minutes, and back for 28:18.

Golf

I did not run today, but walked 18 holes at First Tee.

I scored a 92, with nines of 47 and 45. I took 33 putts, and hit two greens in regulation. I had 3 pars, 11 bogies, 3 doubles, and 1 triple. It was lovely, in the low 60s, with lots of sunshine and an occasional light breeze.

Two consecutive

Tonight's was another pretty good run, my second in row. I ran the Park Hill Loop in 54:28. I was a little dead-legged, but managed to run most of the way. I walked the first minute of each mile, and the steep hills. I felt comfortable running. My splits were 10:48, 11:01, 10:40, 11:24, and 10:35.

10.8

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — I ran 10.8 miles this morning in 1:58:55. I ran away from the Key West for an hour, mostly west. I ran back, felt great, and measured the course with my Camry.

I used the Mike Huckabee technique, walking for a minute after roughly each mile (I ran for 10 minutes, and walked for one). The last couple of miles were a struggle, but I'm delighted. It was my best long run since early December, 2005. Or I should say my fastest. I felt better this morning than I did on that post-midnight- Mitch Mustain,-Jermaine Taylor run.

Arkansas Tech trails Delta State 49-38 at halftime. Amanda Grappe has scored 25 points for Tech.

Early spring blizzard

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — In my mind, the seasons break down so that spring begins with March, which means 6 inches of snow on the ground here means one of two things: Global warming has quit working, or Mississippi is arctic.

I knew it was going to be cold, so I packed one mitten in my bag before I left Levy. I tried to run bare-handed this morning in snow driven nearly parallel by a straight-line, 30-mph wind, got about a half mile north on Pepper Chase Drive and blew off that nonsense with a run back to my room at the Key West.

Later I drove to the Wal-Mart Super Center where I bought 500 large aerosol cans of hairspray. I discharged them in the parking lot. Mississippi is a southern state and it's snowed here all day and night. It's March, for Christ's sake. I am a fan of global warming and have done and will continue to do everything I can to support it. Tomorrow I will buy a Hummer and more hairspray.

Food

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — It was 10:30 p.m., two hours after Kaitlin May won her second consecutive Miss Gulf South Conference Pageant. I was thinking about the Waffle House. My thought was interrupted when someone carried into the press room a tray of huge, steaming hot dogs. Then a man rolled in a cart with buns, and bowls filled with shredded cheese, diced red onions, and mustard. Another man followed with an electric crock of chili. He put it on a table beside a stack of basketball media guides and plugged it in. A woman came in two minutes later, as I typed a box score into my computer, with a a bowl of plastic knives and forks, and a stack of napkins.

We had Cokes and bottled water on ice, and maybe the best treatment of sportswriters and sports information directors in the history of NCAA Division II athletics.

Man.

Pepper Chase Drive

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — There was a senior guard from Alabama-Huntsville, Julie Richardson, I think (No. 12), who struck me a bit in her post-game interview yesterday, but Harding's Kaitlin May will be hard to beat in today's Miss Gulf South Conference Pageant.

I ran 2 miles on an out-and-back course on Pepper Chase Drive from the Key West Inn and Suites this morning in 21:35, with splits of 10:45 and 10:50. Pepper Chase Drive has the feel of a freeway-access road, except that it offers no access to I-55, which it parallels north and south. Maybe a dozen cars passed me as I ran by the Great American Home Store, a factory called American Steel, which, based on its empty parking lot, looked like a lot of factories in this country with names like "American Steel," the Southaven Animal Shelter, and RV City, to the turnaround at the Southaven Eagle (a newspaper, I think)

The course is slightly downhill headed out, south away from the Key West, offset some this morning by a 15-20 mph north wind. I felt okay. My legs are a little dead, but that didn't surprise me. I ran a marathon four days ago, and ate too much yesterday. The chef they hire for the GSC men's and women's basketball tournament is the best mass producer of food I have encountered. Yesterday he turned sheets of pasta, butter-drenched steamed squash, and cheese into a fucking masterpiece. The lasagna was close to perfect. Lunch consisted of salad (several varieties of fresh lettuce and spinach, red onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and thinly sliced cucumbers), juicy beef sliced thin with crisp, fatty edges, homemade bread, and a pot of chili.

Now I will shower, drive two blocks to the DeSoto Civic Center, eat, and start judging the beauty pageant.

Brain decay

It's a good thing I keep a diary, because my memory sucks.

This afternoon, two and a half days after mostly waking a marathon in 7:03 (revised chip time, since I started two minutes late), I ran the Levy Loop in 21:44, with mile splits of 10:52 and 10:52 (I walked for a minute after the first mile, and up the relatively steep hill on Hillside Drive), and felt great. My legs were a little stiff, but remarkably lively.

This performance reminded me of a 4-mile run I thought I had on the Thursday after my 5:23 marathon in 2005. My memory said I ran it in 31 something. As soon as I walked in after this run, 10 minutes ago, I dug through my shelf of diaries in the back bedroom. I did run a nice 4 miles on that Thursday, but in 34:19. I wrote, "I felt great, probably had three minutes up my sleeve."

Actually, I ran the fast time on Feb. 25, nine days before the marathon — the Ridge Road Loop in 31:40.

I was pretty well trained for that race. I'd forgotten that. On the Sunday before, I ran from the 11-mile mark to 16 miles (easily the hardest 5 miles on the course, from roughly Central High to Mount St. Mary High) and back in 1:38:30, a 9:51 pace. I wrote, "This was a good effort, coming just two days after my fast 4 miles."

It's been hard for me to imagine how disappointed I was by that 5:23:30, but now understand.

After that 34:19, my knee hurt for a few days and when it recovered I had lost rhythm or something and didn't truly return to training until the end of the summer.

If I do that this time, I will risk embarrassing my host and friends at the Whidbey Island Marathon in four weeks, five days. Plus, I can't feel as badly as I did yesterday the day after Whidbey and not embarrass myself and perhaps Erin Vratil, and waste $130, as we try to walk Chambers Bay (near Seattle, and the host course of the 2015 U.S. Open).

Wait a minute. On second thought, if I run the Whidbey Island Marathon in 7:03, no one will be embarrassed. Only my host and friends will be at the finish when I cross it. I think the slowest time last year was something like 6:10. That's right. Fuck training. I'm driving to a mini-mart for a 12 pack of Milwaukee's Best, and then over to Wendy's for a double cheeseburger.

Little Rock Marathon

Some 24- or 25-year-old funeral home marketing director and UALR senior named Rebecca kept me from breaking seven hours. I'm a little pissed, since my 15-mile-a-week training program had me ready for a sub-seven-hour marathon.

I felt bad from the start, as my splits confirm: 1, 14:36; 2, 13:47; 3, 13:37; 4, 14:22; 5, 15:39; 6, 16:04; 7, 14:36; 8, 14:57; 9. 15:53; 10, 15:44; 11, 14:36; 12, 19:23; 13, 19:01; 14, 18:34; 15, 16:20; 16, 17:43; 17, 15:58; 18, 16:23; 19, 17:51; 20, 18:29; 21, 22:33; 22, 16:37; 23, 16:29; 24, 13:59; 25, 13:20; 26, 12:36.

Nearing the 6-mile mark on 3rd Street, I dropped a roll of SweaTarts. I reached to pick it up, and couldn't using the standard technique recommended. My hamstrings were so tight, I had to exaggerate my knee bend. Someone behind me said, "You might not be able to pick those up in a few miles," I said, "Hell, it's hard now." " I could tell." My hamstrings were too tight for me to kick, so I slugged him in the face.

I knew I was whipped when I could no longer break 15 minutes for a mile, usually a very comfortable walking pace. So after the 10th mile, I quit, but walking 2 miles at 19 minutes each toward a good quitting spot revived me. I decided to continue. I walked through the 23rd mile, the last three with very cute, Pete-pretty Rebecca. She had started 2 hours after me, run the first half in 2:15, and stopped to walk just after she passed me at 19 miles. Somewhere on my slow walk with her, I started feeling much better. She recovered and ran away at about 22.5 miles. I could have run then, but didn't really care about my time, since my goal had been revised to breaking eight hours and not finishing last. Both of those were secured, and I hadn't bothered to consider my pace or again revising my goal.

I wasn't even bothering to look at my overall time, just the mile spilts, until Mile 23. I noticed I'd been out for 6:21:23, and it occurred I could break seven hours if I ran the last 3 miles at about a 12-minute pace. I was probably too slow for that, I figured, but gave it a try, and ran the last 3 in 13:59, 13:20, and 12:36. Take out my 3-mile flirt with Rebecca, and add 3 miles at a 13:30 pace, and I could've done it, I think.

Oh well. Somehow the Little Rock Marathon people got their clocks fucked up, and failed to add the two hours for the people who started at 6 a.m. As of this morning, according to the paper, the slowest official time in the race was 6:36:38. I ran it in 5:05:14.

Race prep

This morning I attempted to run the Levy Loop at the pace I hope to use at the start of the Little Rock Marathon tomorrow, but believe I failed. I jogged slowly, walked slowly, and covered it in 26:39, with mile splits of 13:10 and 13:29. Maybe, just maybe, I can average 13:29 a mile for 26.21875 miles (for a 5:53:31), but don't bet on it. My over-under remains six hours. I would recommend taking the under, but without particular confidence.

The weather was gorgeous for such a trot, perhaps 50 degrees, with no wind. I think I'll go to the driving range.

Oh. I saw Sam, who didn't come in last night, chasing birds on a lawn behind the Taco Bell. She thus has established a wander-around range of at least four blocks, which might explain why I found her at a cat pound.